I worked in electronics design labs for 40 years. We used many different solvents, including isoproplyl alcohol, and these fluids ended up on hands all the time. Over about 30 years they were all banned due to liver and immune system damage because all solvents absorb through the skin and poison the body. My partner worked there too, also a type 1, and in 1983 decided we were not going to use swabs anymore after reading the latest warnings. So now, for over 25 years, neither of us have used alcohol for wiping vials or our skin and never ONCE have either of us had any kind of infection.
I always take my shot before my shower or I would forget, so my hands are not washed either, and that is true of my former partner too.
What do you guys do, and have you ever tried without.
I use swabs before I stick in the MM Silhouettes and the CGM Sensor. I'm pretty sure the MM sensor is the nastiest needle out there? I probably should be drinking the alchohol before I insert them but, unfortunately, it's in the AM and I am usually going to work. It is probably absurd to do it for the sensors as, leaving them in for 6 days, I figure they are a fetid mess by the time I take them off but, for some reason, I like to do it?
I didn't ever use them for needles or BG testing. I stopped on my own but was relieved that Dr. Bernstein validated that practice in his book.
I’m sort of in a bind, and don’t know what to do… I have been using different kinds of soap to wash my hands, and it is just rough in Winter… My hands are a dry, awful mess, and I can’t really use lotion during the day as it throws off my readings (or soap with a lot of moisturizer)… and then just lotion overnight doesn’t help… Yeah, sure, alcohol dries out the one finger… but soap dries out my hold hands like horrible dried leather! I have a horrible dry hand rash coming up, and I dunno what else to do… until this darn Winter is over.
I have never used alcohol swabs on any body part either before a finger prick or taking insulin. I was told not to use it on my skin when I was dx’ed 12 years ago. I usually wash my hands before pricking my finger because my hands are usually cold, especially in the wintertime and I don’t want to have to stick my finger more than 1 time to get a drop of blood.
Liz I’ve been told by my Dr to use Dial soap when testing my hands instead of alcohol. yes it drys out my hands but have learnd long ago to live with dry hands b/c any type of lotion will cause off readings too.
I don’t use alcohol for shots, vials or before testing. A quick wipe with alcohol doesn’t disinfect. Something has to be submerged in alcohol for a while for it to be disinfected.
No, but Dial is the worst, too! if they were just dry, I’d be okay… but they get so dry, they bleed, and get rashes, and bumps… and they hurt… It’s awful!
I too have heard this-- and I do believe that it is the friction associated with the scrubbing (with alcohol swabs, soap between palms, etc) that does the most to rid oneself of germs. someone correct me if i am mistaken.
I am a medic and don’t use it for testing on myself now as for at work we have to it is protocol but personally I don’t use it on myself i just wash my hands. I do on my sensor sites before insertion since it is a long standing break in the skin
I didn’t use them until this spring when I started using the Dexcom. I also use the Orbit Micro infusion sets for my pump & something in the alcohol causes their adhesive to stick – they even put alcohol pads in the packing.. I don’t use alcohol for testing or regular shots.
I do think I’m just gonna go back to the alcohol swabs. I figure a.) I rotate fingers a lot, so it can’t possibly be hugely drying on one finger alone if it’s rotated a lot… and b.) One mildly dried finger is better than my hands being RAW and bleeding, and getting terrible rashes, from over drying because I have to wash my hands with soap and water so much during the day… It’s just not worth it to me, at least during Winter.
I use em. But then again when I was in the AF painting jets I was nearly constantly exposed to methyl ethyl ketone, chromium/cadmium, and about a hundred other chemicals I’ve forgotten the names of. Alcohol is nothing compared to some of them. And it makes me feel better using them. I don’t use them in public though, I just shoot through my shirt.
I don’t use alcohol for finger pricks. All it does is dissolve the oil, but doesn’t disinfect (as someone else said). I DO use it for pump sites and CGM sites, because it dissolves the oil on the skin, and then they stick better. And I haven’t had any problem with dryness, because I rotate sites anyway. I’ve never had any problem with infections, and I’ve been shooting insulin for almost 17 years, and on the pump for 12. But when I was in the hospital, I used alcohol on my fingers and shot sites just to make the nurses happy – they think they know it all, and it’s protocol, anyway!
